Bought as an "out of box" item and it was perfectly fine. Was packaged nicely and no stains/rips/scratches. Installed on our front door and I still need to take out the extra length (which I think can be done). I purchased expensive, custom-fit, Levolor blinds for our front room and wish I had looked here first.  Not sure I would have found "out of the box" ones that would have worked/fit, but it would have been a good learning experience, rather than heading straight to the department store, like I did.